Time management & saying no as a manager: the stupid delegate badly

Good Executives have to delegate. It takes it Courage and determination, especially in difficult times. But that's just too risky for many managers. A big problem.

Every (good) manager works too much

If working too hard is a sin, we all commit it. But is it even one? "I have the feeling that I have to work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in order to manage my workload," every (good) manager has confessed to me at some point. So what? After all, it's our job to work (too) much. We get paid for that. Why should that be bad? It is not a sin to work a lot - if it is the "right" job.

Let me set a bad example and tell of my sin. When I became the division manager of the Company, where I was working at the time, I was thrilled. Almost euphoric. Motivated to the core. In my inaugural speech to my new employees, I said what everyone leaders would say at that point, "My door is always open to you!" The first few weeks in my new position were filled with hard work, but I kept my promise. Whenever someone around a Meeting asked, I boxed time free. My appointment calendar was bursting at the seams in no time. I also played the caregiver for every afflicted soul who looked at me with a suffering look Office pushed.

Do you also do your employees' work?

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You can imagine how I felt after a few weeks and when I did my "real" work. Namely after work ... of course the end of work of the others. you know for sure the stupid manager joke: "The manager stands in front of his front door in the evening, his little daughter opens it for him and says: 'No thanks, we don't need any Insurance and we've all subscribed to newspapers.'” I can assure you that I didn't find such jokes particularly amusing at the time. Because I was the one who stood in front of the door in the evening. But I was lucky. I had my very personal »awakening experience«.

Late one afternoon I stood musing at my office window. I was mulling over a problem that was affecting some of my closest friends Employees reported half an hour earlier. I stared out the window, thinking restlessly, without the Welt to really perceive out there. I saw the bustle of People down the street and thought nothing of it - until a flash of realization hit me.

The flash of knowledge

Between all the people I saw completely clear my employees too, who streamed out of our building in droves. They went home laughing and joking happily while I was up here Problems rolled, which they had thrown at me shortly before closing time. Mind you: their problems. The students are off and the teacher is late? So does the manager do his employees' work during the day while doing his own at night?

Another important question came to mind: If I do my employees' work, what do they do during this time? Obviously at 17 p.m. at the end of the day. I was speechless. It is a mortal sin if you work too much for doing other people's work! Personal disappointment hit me worst. Until then I had thought we were one Team. Now I could almost hear the voices of my employees: "We still have to do this and that!" "None Lust. Delegate that to the boss. He'll fix it!” I was really glad that it was already the end of the day and that no one was around in the building who could have become an undeserved victim of my sudden anger. I really wanted to give some of my dear employees (employees!) the Opinions to cram.

Checklist: My boss's catalog of sins

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The next morning, however, I had calmed down enough that I could think about my leadership behavior. With every minute that I thought about it, it became clearer to me that the previous night's incident wasn't a one-time mistake, but rather an almost habitual sin. As I began listing what I did throughout the day, I became aware of the essentials. What aspects would you tick off on?

•  I solve a number of problems that my employees should take care of.
• I control things that you could or should check yourself.
• I'll go over what others have already checked.
• I organize processes that my employees have to plan.
• I take care of my employees' personal affairs that are not really my business.
• I do tasks that others could do well and happily - sometimes even better!

Don't let your employees seduce you!

With horror I imagined the reaction of my own superior if he should find out (and the old man always found out things like that) what I've been up to all day: "What's he doing? I'm not paying him for that! That's the job of his employees!« I started blaming myself until I got suspicious: Had I voluntarily worked overtime the night before? The realization grew in me: Managers don't (only) sin. They are tempted to sin. I hadn't worked overtime the night before of my own accord, but my employees had me after all Regulate of Art "seduced" to do so. How did they do it?

Everyone has or knows (at least) one employee who works at certain Tasks once helpless there. Then you explain it to him (sacrificing ten minutes) and partly do the task yourself (an hour gone). Afterwards you discover: The employee is not so helpless. He's just pretending! He could very well have done the work himself. The day before, my employees had raised a problem with me, not entirely without ulterior motives: It was just before closing time. The problem had to be solved, but they had more important things to do. Namely going home. So they tempted me in a way that wasn't even particularly clever.

How learned helplessness works

I had one once IT-Leader, who was much smarter in this regard. If I gave him an order, it not only came back to me like a boomerang, no, it now required three times the effort. I still admire him for his ability to fool me and make me do all the work. Do you also have one or more of these Pappenheimers in your ranks? Then you should clarify the following problem:

The more often you give in to the alleged helplessness of your employees, the more inefficient they become Future work (because they literally forget how to do it) and the more overworked you'll be! It's almost as grandfather said: "Anyone who gets on the wrong track gets deeper and deeper into the cesspool of sin." What is particularly frightening about it is the ability of the employees to Executive seduction is usually much more pronounced than the ability of superiors to resist this temptation.

3 tips for better organization

Have you noticed that too? Do you still fall for it again and again? That's exactly what I want to protect you from. Let's make you immune to the temptations and lures of manipulative employees.

There are managers who have been presented in this way for decades - and not just by their own employees. Many also make themselves compliant idiots of the rampant bureaucracy. Are you no longer participating? I congratulate you on your decision. How do you create better framework conditions? By …

1. optimize the organizational structures,
2.  pursue the right strategies and
3. do not declare themselves responsible for everything.

The huh? Question

During the reorganization of a medium-sized company, I noticed that the necessary tasks in a certain department were always implemented much more slowly and half-heartedly than in the sister departments. I took the head of department to my chest, who turned out to be a great sinner within seconds. He complained: "I can instruct what I want - every time my people throw me in with questions: 'What is that meant?' Or: 'What do you mean by that?' They just don't think for themselves."

'No,' I said, 'your employees are playing dumb and doing their best in the time it takes you Ask to answer, of course, no fingers. They've realized it's a time-saver.” “How do you know that?” the department head asked. 'Because it's an ancient game. I call it the huh game. As long as your employees play dumb and ask "Huh?" they don't have to do anything. Even better: while they can rest, their boss has to do something!«

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